Companionship is what makes every journey enjoyable.

Today, we continue our journey with Jesus.

Join Scott Pauli as we make brief stops in the Gospel according to Mark.

We trust you will enjoy the journey.

Of all of Jesus' stories, which one is the most important? Someone's going to say,

well, they're all important, certainly. They're the very word of God. But which one is the most important. Someone's going to say, well, they're all important, certainly.

They're the very word of God. But which one is the key to all of the others? This is not something

that I'm making up. Jesus identified that story. It's found in Mark chapter 4. Now, I want to

show you a verse right in the middle of the passage,

then we'll walk through it. The verse is Mark chapter 4, verse 13, where Jesus said to his disciples,

know ye not this parable, and how then will you know all parables? So this is the story that

unlocks all the other stories. This is Christ's most important story.

He said, if you don't understand this story, you won't understand anything else that I'm going to

say to you because it's the foundation. It's the starting point. All right, if that's true,

are you interested? Would you like to know what that story is? Well, let's read it. Beginning in

Mark chapter 4 verse 1 and he began again to teach by the seaside and there was gathered

unto him a great multitude so that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea and the whole multitude

was by the sea on the land and he taught them many things by parables and set into them in his doctrine. May I pause before

I read the story and point something out. He's not just telling a story to tell a story. He's telling

a story to teach a truth. Notice the connection between the word parables and the word doctrine. Too many

times people get up and give stories for entertainment value or interest value.

But Jesus didn't do that.

...